Princess Auction
by ArtikGato
Summary: As the Princess of Wutai, Yuffie has many responsibilities, all of which she actively shirks. But there is one that she can't escape - by her eighteenth birthday, she has to be married. When she refuses, Godo decides to auction her off!
1. Prologue! I Just Wanted a Bath!

**Princess Auction**

**By Artikgato**

**Disclaimer: **This fanfic is old. _Really_ old. I started writing it after I first beat the game, which was around four or five years ago (I think, anyway). That was before Crisis Core, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus, and even before Advent Children. So this fanfic is oh so very alternate universe (now, anyway). Also, many of the characters might seem to be out of character, either because that's how I wrote them or that's how they seemed to me judging by the game.

**Disclaimer 2: **Oh yeah, this is a Yuffentine fanfic, aka Vincent x Yuffie. They were so much rarer back when I first wrote this! TT

**Disclaimer 3:** This fanfic is currently unfinished, and I'm not sure if I'll ever actually give it a proper ending or not.

**Author's Notes: **Well, this is the (surprisingly short) prologue to what's going to be a very, very long fanfic. So I don't have much to say this time around. Umm, if Yuffie's house seems a little weird, I apologize. I didn't pay much attention during the parts of the game where you got to go inside her house, and so I don't remember much about the layout or the furniture...so I just sort of made it up as I go along.

And you can blame a bunch of other Yuffentine fanfics I've been reading for the entire "you must be married by age 18 blah blah blah" plot device. :D

**Prologue: All I Wanted Was a Warm Bath, Dammit!**

            The air was cold and crisp this morning in Wutai. Fall had long since decorated the village of Wutai with its brightly colored confetti of leaves and late-blooming flower petals. It seemed by all accounts to be a peaceful morning in the village, as men and women went about their business of the mornings, children still nestled in the comforts of sleep and warm blankets. Smoke and steam rose from some of the houses as fires were lit and baths were taken, respectively. Yuffie Kisaragi's house was one of those with steam rising from it. Godo Kisaragi's was not.

            There were many things that Yuffie forgave people for. Intruding on her precious bath time was not one of them. After all, it took her bloody _ages_ to boil enough water to bathe in, as Wutai still had not invested in proper indoor plumbing. So when her father came pounding quite loudly on her door, not five minutes after she had settled into the comforting warmth of her bathtub, she had a rather normal reaction.

            "GO AWAY!" she yelled. She didn't care _who_ it was at the door, they were interrupting her 'me' time, dammit! It could have been _General Sephiroth_, back from the dead, for all she cared. He'd just have to wait until she was done with her bath before he took revenge on her. She giggled a little at the mental image of the almighty Sephiroth waiting rather impatiently at her door while she bathed. Another series of loud pounds on her door turned her amused smile into an annoyed grimace.

            "KISARAGI YUFFIE! COME TO THE DOOR, **NOW**!" came her father's annoyed voice. Grumbling angrily, Yuffie stepped out of the bath and grabbed the biggest towel she could find, wrapping it around herself and stalking off through the cold house to answer the door. The furious look that Godo gave her_ almost_ surpassed the look of sheer annoyance that she wore on her face.

            "_What_?!" she demanded, angrily. Godo just pushed past her, into her house, and she closed the door behind him.

            "Yuffie, we need to talk," he said, sitting down on her couch.       

            "Can't it wait until I'm done with my bath, old man? The water's gonna get cold soon!" Yuffie demanded, clutching the huge white towel around her and giving him a very frustrated look.

            "No, it can't," Godo replied, glaring at her and motioning for her to sit down.

            "I've never interrupted you during YOUR baths!" she exclaimed, stalking off.

            "Where are you going, young lady?" Godo demanded.

            "To put on some CLOTHES!" she exclaimed, as she reached her door and flung it open. She was more than annoyed now. She was _pissed_. What the heck was so important that it couldn't wait another fifteen minutes, at the most? Sure, she and Godo weren't on the best terms right now, but that was no reason for him to be so blatantly _mean_ to her!

            That was _another_ thing that puzzled her. She and Godo were never _really_ on good terms with eachother, but lately it seemed a whole lot worse. The thing was, she'd been _trying_ to get on semi-good terms with her father, ever since she returned from saving the world from Meteor.

            '_You'd think that being one of the saviors of the planet would account for something. Or all the frickin' Materia I brought back from my travels with Spike an' company. Or the fact that I came back to Wutai at **all** after Meteor. I coulda stayed and helped Tifa an' Spike with the bar they're running. But noooo, I came back to Wutai. And still..._'

            "This really is urgent, Yuffie. _Hurry up_," Godo said, with a commanding tone to his voice. She glared at her door, and pulled on her shirt, a green t-shirt that had been a gift from Tifa. She'd chosen that shirt, along with the pair of jeans that she'd gotten from the same martial artist, for a reason. She knew that Godo _hated_ seeing her wearing them, though he'd never admit it. Wutai women were supposed to dress in an elegant traditional kimono with fifty layers, not in the typical garb of Midgarian teenagers. He'd barely tolerated the ninja's former attire of a tank top and shorts, which had become damaged beyond repair in the final battle with Sephiroth two years ago.

            Yuffie barely hid her smirk at the scowl Godo wore when she emerged from her room in her new attire and plopped down unceremoniously in a large, white chair near him.

            "What's up, pops?" she asked, now unable to hide her smirk as Godo's scowl deepened so much that it looked as if his face was going to break. He opened his mouth, probably to berate her, but closed it again. Finally, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened them again, composed.

            Now she _knew_ something was wrong. Along with sleeping, drinking tea, and sitting around like the lazy old geezer he was, one of Godo's favorite things to do was argue with his daughter, and he'd just passed up the chance for not one, but _two _kinda-valid arguments.

            "As you are well aware of, your eighteenth birthday approaches," Godo said. Yuffie shrugged.

            "Yeah?"

            "...and I am sure that you are equally aware that eighteen is the legal age for ascension to the throne..."

            "...yeah?"

            Godo sighed, exasperatedly.

            "Yuffie, you cannot ascend to the throne unmarried," he said. The room was silent for a minute...as Yuffie seethed in anger. Godo had been bringing up the topic of marriage to her since she returned from the Meteor incident, and she'd always replied the same way.

            "No," she said. Godo's eye twitched.

            "Don't give me that. Wutai _law_ requires that the ruler of Wutai be married while he or she is on the throne," he replied.

            "Well, then, I guess the throne'll just hafta wait until I get married, then," she replied, in a cold tone. This was the one thing she was unwilling to debate about. She was _not_ getting married until she was ready to do so. And she wasn't ready to do so. There was still so much of her _life_ left, and if she got married _now_ how could she live it?!

           "It doesn't work that way, Yuffie. You cannot just ascend to the throne whenever you _feel_ like it. Now, I have a few suitors around your age at the Pagoda--"

            "No means NO, pops!" Yuffie exclaimed, standing up out of her chair, rage flashing in her eyes.

            "You will!" Godo exclaimed, also standing up.

            "No I WON'T! And _YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!_" Yuffie screamed.

            She would grow to regret those words.

Comments and constructive criticism would be nice, though of course they're not very likely to change much about the story, since it's mostly already written. ;D


	2. Chapter 1! You're All Gonna Die!

**Princess Auction**

**By Artikgato**

**Disclaimer: **This fanfic is old. _Really_ old. I started writing it after I first beat the game, which was around four or five years ago (I think, anyway). That was before Crisis Core, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus, and even before Advent Children. So this fanfic is oh so very alternate universe (now, anyway). Also, many of the characters might seem to be out of character, either because that's how I wrote them or that's how they seemed to me judging by the game. Some of the stuff in this will make you blink and think "what? That's not right!" – please just go with it.

For example, in this chapter Reeve says he is the President of "Neo-Shinra" – well, before Advent Children most people assumed that Rufus had died from the attack by Diamond Weapon, along with the rest of the Shinra higher-ups. So Reeve forming a new company was a logical conclusion, of course.

Also, yes I know Tifa and Yuffie have black hair, but in the game and in most of the reference pictures before Advent Children their hair looked dark brown.

Vincent being Wutaian was a fairly common plot device in many Yuffentine fanfics (at least back when I read them it was), and details about Vincent's past were very sketchy, so fanfiction writers were free to come up with their own insane ideas.

**Disclaimer 2: **Oh yeah, this is a Yuffentine fanfic, aka Vincent x Yuffie. They were so much rarer back when I first wrote this! TT

**Disclaimer 3:** This fanfic is currently unfinished, and I'm not sure if I'll ever actually give it a proper ending or not.

**Author's Notes: **Again, if Yuffie's house seems a little weird, I apologize. I didn't pay much attention during the parts of the game where you got to go inside her house, and so I don't remember much about the layout or the furniture...so I just sort of made it up as I go along. And as for the Japanese...call me a Japanophile or an otaku if you want, but I really love the Japanese language. And considering the Wutai:Japan parallel, it makes sense that all of the Wutaian characters would have Japanese names and speak Japanese. And if that doesn't convince you, then blame a bunch of other Yuffentine fics where they speak Japanese. xD

Anyway, Vincent's Wutaian name, "Sha Geki" means "gunshot", which I thought was fitting.

"Shashin", which is the name of the samurai guy that was holding Yuffie's ropes, means "Photo". Ah, the joys of flipping open the Japanese dictionary and taking the first word that you see for a name!

The name of the auctioneer, "Kyo Bainin", literally means "auctioneer". Woot! I'm so creative. )

Vinnie's Parents: I just kinda made up their names, too. " Seijutsu, his father's name, means 'loyalty'. Vinnie's mother's name is 'Hane Hajimari'. Hane means 'flower', and 'hajimari' means 'genesis'.

Ko Shoku, the second-highest bidder, literally means 'lechery'. I come up with such interesting names for people, ne?

**Chapter One: When I Get Out of This, I'll Kill You All!**

            It was another of those crisp, yet refreshing autumn mornings in Wutai as the Highwind touched down just outside the city, stirring up the multicolored carpet of leaves as it landed. Six people and one large, tiger-like beast descended from the large airship. The first was a man with wild, spiky blonde hair. Directly behind him was a woman with long, rich brown hair. A large, dark-skinned man with a gun in the place of one arm was next, followed by the large, reddish-orange tiger beast. A man with brown hair and a goatee was next, followed by a tall, imposing looking man with long, black hair and a golden claw in the place of one of his arms. Last in the line was a short, blonde man with a lit cigarette perpetually in his mouth. The man in front carried an armful of gifts, and looked slightly annoyed at having to do so. As the large party made their way into Wutai, they immediately noticed something odd. There was a very large crowd in the center of town, and people, mostly children, were rushing to and fro in excitement throughout the rest of the city. The woman with the long brown hair, Tifa, managed to stop one of the children and ask him what was happening, but all she got in return was a garbled response in Wutaian, which Cloud was unable to translate with his meek-at-best knowledge of the Wutai language. Shrugging, the party made their way to Yuffie's house, which they found surprisingly both empty and unlocked. The presents were left in a heap on Yuffie's couch, and the party decided to move their search for the ninja girl to the center of town, assuming that there was some sort of 'coming-of-age' celebration going on for their friend.

            When they arrived at the center of the town, they found that they could not have been more wrong.

           They discovered that the large crowd was actually crowded around the entrance to the Pagoda. Several guards, garbed in traditional samurai armor, stood at the entrance to said Pagoda, and two were busily fending off a couple of kimono-clad women, who were yelling something in Wutaian.

            "Cloud?" Tifa asked, tugging on a sleeve of his blue shirt. "Can you understand what they're saying?" Cloud listened for a second, and shook his head.

            "I don't know very much Wutaian...I think I heard 'fukohai', which means 'unfair'...but it could've been 'fukuei', which means 'meal time'...er, I think..." he replied, scratching his blonde head in confusion. Tifa sighed. The group pushed through the crowd and made their way over to the guards.

            "Excuse me? Can you tell me what's going on?" Cloud asked, in Midgarian, praying that they knew the language. One guard glared at them.

            "That's none of your business," he replied in a gruff voice.

            "Please, we're friends of Princess Yuffie! We're Avalanche!" Tifa exclaimed. The guard continued to glare for a second, and then sighed, almost regretfully.

            "Princess Yuffie turned eighteen today, and she is still unwed, making her unfit to claim the throne," the guard replied.

            "So?" Cloud asked, stomach turning with a feeling of dread.

            "Well, Princess Yuffie refused to choose a suitor to marry...so Godo is auctioning her off," the guard replied, swallowing and averting his gaze as fury blazed into the eyes of the Avalanche members surrounding him.

            "WHAT?!" Tifa screamed, her enraged squawk echoing off of the buildings around her, and making more than a few people in the crowd go silent. The guard cringed.

            "You have to let us through!" Cloud exclaimed, stepping forward. This time, the guard brandished his weapon, a_ naginata_, or long wooden pole with a blade attached to the end. Two other guards did the same.

            "I'm sorry, but you cannot pass," the guard hastened to explain. Barret raised his gun arm threateningly.

            "One of our friends is 'bout ta be _auctioned off_, an' you wanna keep us out?!" he exclaimed, enraged.

            "Yer just _lookin' _for an ass-kickin', aren'tcha?!" Cid backed him up. Reeve pushed his way past Cid and Barret, eliciting outraged squawks from both men.

            "As the President of Neo-Shinra," he began, coolly, despite the rising battle auras of his friends behind him, "I DEMAND that you let me through to speak to Godo!" Surprised murmurs began to spread through the crowd at this remark. The guard gulped, taking notice of the rising anger of his teammates as well. Even the scary-looking guy in the back was sending him a bone-chilling glare. He bit his lip, but continued with his duties, hoping that his armor really _could_ deflect bullets, and his naginata would be enough to fend off all six of the dangerous-looking people...as well as the tiger beast.

            "I'm sorry...but I'm afraid that only Wutaian men can enter here..." he replied, shakily. The group's collective rage grew to new heights at that remark, but diminished greatly in surprise when Vincent stepped forward, calmly. The only thing betraying his calm appearance were his eyes, which were practically radiating an aura of 'you-will-die-painfully' at the samurai.

            "I am Wutaian," he said, staring down at the samurai, who gulped.

            "R-really?" the samurai asked, astonished and scared at the same time. "I...don't believe you,"

            "_Watashi wa Sha Geki_," Vincent told the guard, in fluent, if highly accented, Wutaian. ("I am 'Sha Geki',") The jaws of Avalanche collectively dropped.

            "Y-you're Wutaian?!" Cid demanded.

            "Why didn't you tell us you could speak Wutaian BEFORE?!" Cloud demanded, shortly after. Both the trembling samurai guard and Vincent paid them no heed, as the guard gulped and finally stepped aside.

            "_Sha-san...sumimasen_," the guard replied. ("Mr. Sha, I am sorry,") The other guards stepped aside as well, and allowed Vincent to step through into the Pagoda.

            Entering the Pagoda, Vincent noticed that the rather large room that had once been a place of fighting and training had been converted into something of an impromptu auditorium. A small wooden stage was placed against the far wall, and chairs were placed in the rest of the space, facing the stage. A veritable sea of Wutaian men, mostly wearing traditional garb, sat in the chairs, some standing and talking with other men. It looked as if the auction had yet to begin. Vincent sat in a chair close to the door of the pagoda, trying to remain inconspicuous. At the loud ring of the PHS, Vincent would have jumped out of his skin, if it hadn't been for the fact that it was a strange thing for the silent gunman to do. Instead he quickly answered the small phone, remaining calm and collected despite the looks several people around him were giving him.

            "What?" he asked.

            "Vincent? What's going on in there?" Cloud's voice came from the speaker. Cloud made a strange sound, and the PHS seemed to be snatched away from the blonde-haired leader.

            "Do you see Yuffie?! Is she alright?!" Tifa's voice demanded, shortly after.

            "The auction has yet to begin. No, I don't see her," Vincent replied in a low voice, hoping that no-one around him understood Midgarian. Vincent closed the PHS and put it back in his pocket when Godo suddenly walked onto the stage, and motioned for the audience to be quiet.

            "Good afternoon, gentlemen," he said, in Wutaian. "Thank you all for coming. Yes, it is as you have heard. As my daughter... the princess...did not choose a suitor to marry, it was up to me to choose for her. However, I think that this method will better serve Wutai," he said. Vincent glared at him, coldly, not noticing the twinge of sadness in the man's speech.

            "Now, before we begin, are there any questions?" Godo asked. A younger man in the front of the audience stood, and bowed respectfully.

            "What exactly is that we are bidding for, Lord Godo? Marriage to Princess Yuffie?" he asked, sitting down politely after his question was asked.

            "Yes...the highest bidder will have gained the privilege of my daughter's hand in marriage...but he will also have bought my daughter," Godo answered, carefully. An older man chuckled and stood.

            "So, we'll be buying her _body_, then?" he asked, a lecherous grin on his face. Godo looked distinctly uneasy, but managed to remain collected.         

            "...yes," he finally answered. The older man gave a delightful cackle and sat back down. Vincent had heard enough, and he quickly withdrew the PHS and dialed Cloud's number, as another man asked a ridiculous question that made Godo very uneasy.

            Tifa jumped a little when the PHS rang, but before she could answer it, Cloud had grabbed it from her hands and answered.

            "Vincent?" he asked.

            "Yes," came the gunman's deep voice from the other side of the line.       

            "What did you find out?" Cloud asked, slightly worried.    

            "...how much money is in Avalanche's account?" Vincent asked. Cloud looked a little surprised at this question.

            "After we sold most of our weapons and the items we collected during our journey...several million," Cloud asked. The rest of Avalanche listened in equal parts confusion and suspense.

            "Good," came Vincent's reply. Cloud blinked.      

            "You're not planning on buying Yuffie, are you?" Cloud asked, uncertainly. There was a long silence from the gunman. A smirk made its way across Cloud's face.

            "Why, Vincent! I had no _idea_ you wanted to marry Yuffie this badly!" he exclaimed. He could practically feel Vincent's death glare from the other side of the phone.

            "It's not that," the gunman replied, in his everso calm voice. "The highest bidder won't just become her _husband_ Cloud, he'll become her _owner_," Vincent replied, purposefully emphasizing 'owner'. Cloud scratched his head.

            "So you wanna _own_ her? I don't get it," Cloud replied. Tifa smacked herself on the forehead.           

            "That isn't what he means, Cloud! He means that she'll have to be the _slave_ to whoever wins the bid!" she exclaimed. Cloud still blinked.

            "...so?" he asked.

            "Consider this, Cloud. What if a perverted old man like Don Corneo wins the bid?" Vincent explained. Cloud grimaced, instantly.

            "Oh!" he exclaimed. Vincent rolled his red eyes, and the rest of Avalanche, barring Cloud, shook their heads. Sometimes, Cloud could just be so...dense.

            "HEY!! YOU BETTER UNTIE ME, YOU UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS! IS THIS ANY WAY TO TREAT YOUR PRINCESS?!" Yuffie demanded, struggling against the ropes that held her hands tightly together. The tall, armor-clad man holding the other end of the rope just ignored her, quite ashamedly.

            Yuffie was seething with anger. She wished, just this once, that her battle aura really _was_ fire, like on that weird tv show she'd seen that one time in that hotel in Midgar. That way, it would burn the ropes and she could escape.

            As if having her arms bound together wasn't bad _enough_, the way she was dressed was another cause for distress for the young ninja. Her father had had the audacity to force her to wear a **_pink yukata_**. Pink was _not_ her color. The yukata, normally a garment worn in the summer for training, did nothing to shield her from the cold fall air, and she'd had goosebumps on her skin for much MUCH longer than she cared to. She shuddered, both from the cold and from disgust. She knew why her father had put her in a yukata. It barely covered her, and showed much more of her leg than she wanted all the men of Wutai seeing. This said a lot about the shortness of the yukata, considering Yuffie's usual attire. She wasn't crazy about the idea of being auctioned, but she was far more concerned with having to deal with the lecherous stares of the men she was going to be auctioned off to. She didn't even want to _think_ about what could happen to her _after_ the auction. She just wanted to run away...but the ropes that bound her hands together were simply too tight for her to do anything other than struggle.

            "Yuffie...please do not struggle," came her father's voice. She turned to glare at him. "You'll bruise your wrists,"

            "GO TO **HELL**!" she shouted at him as he ascended into the room from the stairs.

            "Yuffie..." Godo said again. She just growled at him. He sighed, pained, and walked past her, to the stairs leading to the third floor of the pagoda.

            "_Shashin_, take her downstairs. The auctioneer is ready," Godo commanded the samurai who was holding her ropes. Yuffie cursed as the samurai stood her on her feet and told her, albeit respectfully, to walk. Godo sighed as his daughter's cursing voice faded away as she was taken downstairs, to her fate. He buried his head in his hands, and sighed deeply.

            "It is for the best...for Wutai," he said.

            Vincent watched as a tall Wutai man climbed onto the impromptu stage, and Godo introduced him as '_Kyo Bainin_', the auctioneer. Soon after, Godo disappeared up the stairs leading to the second floor, and soon after that, a cursing Yuffie was pulled downstairs by a samurai-garbed man, who then, with the assistance of another guard and the auctioneer, tied the end of the rope binding Yuffie's hands to one of the rafters on the ceiling. The whole time, the ninja princess was shrieking curses that would have made Cid proud.

            Vincent's stomach churned in disgust as he watched them literally hang up Yuffie. The rope was not quite long enough, and she was forced to stand on her toes in order to maintain anything remotely resembling comfort. The pink yukata she wore was probably purposefully too tight on her, to attract a higher bid from the audience. He closed his eyes for a few moments in disgust.

            '_Still, she does look beautiful in that yukata_," he found himself thinking. He snapped his eyes open, surprised. Where had _that_ thought come from? But, he had no further time to debate the strange inner workings of his mind, as the auctioneer stepped up to his podium, leering quite lecherously at Yuffie, who cursed him to the depths of Hell in return.

            "All right, gentlemen, we'll start the bid at 5000 Gil..."he began, but was interrupted by an outraged shriek from Yuffie.

            "THAT'S ALL I'M WORTH?! #!!" The auctioneer frowned.         

            "Guards...kindly shut the young lady up," he said. The two samurai hesitated, obviously uneasy with putting a gag on their princess, but finally obliged, after one was bitten by said princess. Vincent would have found this amusing, if the situation were not as grave as it was. Several million _should_ be enough...but there was always the chance that it wouldn't be. Vincent had a plan, though, and the one thing that could always be said about Vincent's plans were that they _worked_.   
            So, after Yuffie was gagged, which caused Vincent's stomach to churn a little harder in pity for the girl, the auctioneer continued.

            "...again, we're starting the bid at 5000 Gil. Do I hear 5000?" he asked. And so, the battle for Yuffie's fate began.

            Yuffie had thought that trudging through the jungle near Mideel had been miserable. She'd thought that trudging through the snow outside Icicle village had been miserable. Yuffie had thought that she was absolutely miserable after Aeris died. She'd thought that she could never have a more horrible, miserable experience than fighting Sephiroth in North Crater. But, she was mistaken. She'd gladly go back to fighting Sephiroth, _alone_ at that, as opposed to the situation she was in now. Her wrists and hands were now numb, and her shoulders felt like they were going to break at any moment. The ropes burned against the skin of her wrists, and the gag in her mouth was making her much, much sicker than she had ever been on the Highwind. She kept her eyes on the wooden stage in front of her, afraid to look into the audience and see the lust-filled stares of the men of her village. She felt tears burning at the sides of her eyes, but refused to let them fall.

            The furious anger that had been burning in her before was gone now, replaced by a terrible, burning hatred for everyone and everything around her. She'd lost all hope of getting out of the situation, now. She repeated a prayer in her head to Leviathan, but at the same time she was also thinking that the praying was going to do no good, and it was going unheard by the serpent god.

            '_Dammit, Leviathan, what'd I ever do to you?!_' she demanded, silently, and shifted her feet uncomfortably. She suddenly became aware of her surroundings when the auctioneer began to move toward her, still shouting bids at the audience.

            "200 thousand Gil! Do I have 250 thousand?" he asked, moving toward her. The audience was silent for a second, watching him. She looked toward him, and the look on his face made her blood run cold. Fear crept into her eyes. What was he going to do?

            "250 thousand!" a middle-aged man shouted from the audience.

            "250 thousand! Do I have 300 thousand?" the auctioneer shouted, grinning at the audience. After a second of silence, he continued. "Come now, this isn't just an item or rare materia we're bidding on, gentlemen, this is a _princess_! And don't forget, if you win the bid, her _body_ is yours too!" he said. Yuffie paled, and when he turned a lecherous smirk on her, she began to struggle against her bonds, and shout through her gag. She knew what he was going to do, and it scared her witless. With one swift movement, he reached out and pulled on one side of the obi that was holding her yukata closed. The pink cloth slid away from her, and her yukata held in place for a moment, before draping open, exposing her underwear for all the men in the audience to see. She struggled harder, cursing the auctioneer audibly despite the gag. The auctioneer chuckled, and tossed the pink obi into the audience, where it fluttered into the hands of one of the dirty old men. Yuffie held back a sob, deciding to be defiant to the end. There were whistles and cheers in the audience. Vincent politely averted his eyes, thoroughly disgusted.       

            '_Once this is over, I will have to pay a visit to that auctioneer. A **painful** visit_,' he thought, vehemently. Little did he know his thought was being shared by the gagged and bound princess, who had now stopped struggling against her bonds.

            "Now, gentlemen, 300 thousand?" the auctioneer asked.

            "300 thousand!"

            "350!"

            "400!"

            "500!"

            The auctioneer grinned.

            "500 thousand! Do I hear 550?"

            There was a pause in the bidding when 650 thousand was reached.

            "700 thousand, gentlemen?" he asked. A couple of men looked as if they would stand up, but hesitated, thoughtfully. The auctioneer grinned, and grabbed an edge of the pink yukata, ripping it almost violently from Yuffie's shoulders where it was hanging loosely. Yuffie shouted something, but it was muffled by the gag. But, the auctioneer did not stop there. With a vicious grin, he also proceeded to rip the bra from Yuffie's chest, leaving her all but naked on the stage.

            The audience cheered loudly, the auctioneer grinned quite evilly, and Vincent's shoulders tensed. The auctioneer had a bit of difficulty calming down the audience, but once he did, he resumed the bidding.

            "700!"

            "800!"

            The bidding continued like this, but the audience again hesitated, understandably, at 1 million. The auctioneer turned his vicious grin on Yuffie again, and both Yuffie's and Vincent's stomachs turned to lead. Yuffie, despite the obvious exhaustion that was setting in, struggled violently against the ropes holding her hands as the auctioneer again approached her. She even managed to weakly kick at him, only to have him catch her leg and throw it back down. He placed a hand on her chin, causing Yuffie to shudder and stop struggling. He turned to the audience.

            "1 million, gentlemen?" he asked, dragging his hand slowly down her body. Suddenly, Yuffie just couldn't hold back the tears anymore. She sobbed, dropping her head and letting the tears cascade down her cheeks.

            Utter chaos broke out now. The audience became a swirling pool of shouting men, some shouting bids and others shouting lewd remarks. Vincent suddenly gripped his chair tightly and squeezed his eyes shut, as he felt the familiar homicidal rage of the Chaos demon bubbling to the surface.           

            '_Not...now!_' he finally managed to subdue the demon and return to his senses.

            "1 million, 310 thousand gil! Going once, going twice..." the auctioneer shouted. It was time for Vincent to act. He rose from his seat, noticeably towering over most of the other men in the audience, and in a clear, loud voice, shouted his bid.

            "2 million, 620 thousand," The room grew silent, and the auctioneer turned rather large, surprised eyes at him. In fact, the entire _room_ was now looking at him...including Yuffie.

            She'd just resigned herself to committing suicide by jumping off of the Da Chao statue, when a clear, familiar voice rang out with an outrageously high bid. It was like music to her ears.

            '_Vinnie!!_' she thought, as she turned her now tear-filled eyes to the tall, imposing man in the audience. She'd never seen a more beautiful man, she found herself thinking. Vincent momentarily glanced away from the auctioneer and at Yuffie, to see her eyes wide and full of hope and gratitude. He hid a small smile behind his red cloak.

            "Ex...excuse me?" the auctioneer asked, dubiously.

            "Two million, 620 thousand," Vincent repeated. The auctioneer blinked.

            "A-alright...two million, 620 thousand, going once..." he started. The man who had bid last, an older gentleman on the front row, turned from staring incredulously at Vincent to sputtering indignantly at the auctioneer.

            "Preposterous! How do we know if he has that much money? And he is NOT Wutaian!" the man exclaimed. The auctioneer shrugged.

            "The princess will go to the next highest bidder, then," the auctioneer replied. The audience murmured a little at that, but there were no other bids.

            "...going twice...sold!" the auctioneer exclaimed, making his way over to his podium and banging his hammer onto the podium for emphasis on the word 'sold'. The older gentleman glared at Vincent, storming from the room, as the rest of the audience sat down, still slightly shocked from the huge bid.

            "Come up here and claim your reward!" the auctioneer said, and Vincent was up on the stage in a heartbeat, concern for Yuffie making him momentarily forget that he was supposed to have a calm demeanor. He was already unbuckling his cape from around him when he made it to the stage. The two samurai guards were already working on freeing Yuffie from her bonds when he made it to her, finally. She pulled her arms free of the ropes just as one of the guards untied her gag, and she practically launched herself at Vincent.

            "VINNIE!!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms gratefully around her savior and sobbing into his black shirt. He just draped the cape over her and glared first at the stunned guards and then at the equally stunned auctioneer. The auctioneer finally blinked and motioned for a guard to retrieve Godo from upstairs.

            "Oh ho ho! It seems that our mysterious bidder already knows the Princess!" the auctioneer announced. "Now, mister...uh..."

            "Sha Geki," Vincent informed him, gently pushing Yuffie away from him in order to wrap his cloak around her more securely.

            "...right, mister Sha, how will you be paying for your...lovely prize?" the auctioneer said, smirking. His smirk quickly faded when both Vincent and Yuffie sent him chillingly cold glares of doom. Yuffie was far too exhausted to have her revenge on the auctioneer, or to even assault his ears with threats of destruction to come. So, she simply sent him a gesture that anyone could understand: she gave him the finger. Vincent carefully picked her up, placing his claw arm under her knees and his human arm under her shoulders. Her eyes went wide for a second, and she blushed bright pink before burying her face in Vincent's chest. She was too tired to endure the stares of the men of her village, men who, until today, she had thought of as upstanding citizens. She wrapped her arms around Vincent's neck as he stood up and began to carry her off the stage.

            "I suppose I'll be paying in cash, as soon as I can contact my bank," Vincent said, and a moment later her was gone, carrying Yuffie with him out of the pagoda.

            "Brace yourself," Vincent told her, as they reached the doors of the Pagoda, which were opened by two shocked samurai guards. Yuffie nodded against his chest. The instant they were out of the pagoda, they were assaulted by dozens of people, both of Wutai and of Avalanche.

            "Yuffie!"

            "Vincent!"

            "Are you alright, Yuffie?"           

            "What the hell happened?"

            "#, why's she wearin' yer #in' cloak, vampire?"

            ...and those were just the Midgarian responses. Vincent sighed.

            "Can we discuss this somewhere less...noisy and crowded?" he asked, Yuffie not once stirring in his arms.


	3. Chapter 2! Wooh, presents!

**Princess Auction**

**By Artikgato**

**Disclaimer: **This fanfic is old. _Really_ old. I started writing it after I first beat the game, which was around four or five years ago (I think, anyway). That was before Crisis Core, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus, and even before Advent Children. So this fanfic is oh so very alternate universe (now, anyway). Also, many of the characters might seem to be out of character, either because that's how I wrote them or that's how they seemed to me judging by the game. Some of the stuff in this will make you blink and think "what? That's not right!" – please just go with it.

**Disclaimer 2: **Oh yeah, this is a Yuffentine fanfic, aka Vincent x Yuffie. They were so much rarer back when I first wrote this! TT

**Disclaimer 3:** This fanfic is currently unfinished, and I'm not sure if I'll ever actually give it a proper ending or not.

**Author's Notes: **Again, if Yuffie's house seems a little weird, I apologize. I didn't pay much attention during the parts of the game where you got to go inside her house, and so I don't remember much about the layout or the furniture...so I just sort of made it up as I go along. And as for the Japanese...call me a Japanophile or an otaku if you want, but I really love the Japanese language. And considering the Wutai:Japan parallel, it makes sense that all of the Wutaian characters would have Japanese names and speak Japanese. And if that doesn't convince you, then blame a bunch of other Yuffentine fics where they speak Japanese. xD

Anyway, Vincent's Wutaian name, "Sha Geki" means "gunshot", which I thought was fitting.

"Shashin", which is the name of the samurai guy that was holding Yuffie's ropes, means "Photo". Ah, the joys of flipping open the Japanese dictionary and taking the first word that you see for a name!

The name of the auctioneer, "Kyo Bainin", literally means "auctioneer". Woot! I'm so creative. )

Vinnie's Parents: I just kinda made up their names, too. " Seijutsu, his father's name, means 'loyalty'. Vinnie's mother's name is 'Hane Hajimari'. Hane means 'flower', and 'hajimari' means 'genesis'.

Ko Shoku, the second-highest bidder, literally means 'lechery'. I come up with such interesting names for people, ne?

And about Cid's swearing...it's been a long, long time since I seriously wrote a fanfic and posted it on this website. Thus, I have no idea which characters aren't allowed and which aren't, and I really don't want to invest the time in figuring out which ones so I can have 'censored' swear words. So if you ever see something like this: " !" Cid swore, just assume I had a string of special characters like dollar signs and percent signs and the like.

...and I totally want a Disgruntled Moogle Plushie. :D

Also, there are three separate scenes in this chapter. Normally I would use a string of equals signs or the like, but as I said before with Cid's wearing, I don't know or care to find out which special characters are and aren't allowed on this website anymore. And I need to divide up the scenes, because otherwise the story reads in a weird way. So I apologize for my "page breaks", if you will. You'll know them when you see them.

**Chapter Two: Yay! Presents! All For Me!**

            Fifteen hectic minutes later, Avalanche, Staniv and Chekov sat in Yuffie's living room, some piled onto the couch or in one of the many chairs, some sitting in dining chairs pilfered from the kitchen, and some simply finding their place on the quite comfortable green carpet. The large, plush white chair in nearly the center of the room was abandoned, reserved for Yuffie by the order of more than one person in the room. When Yuffie finally emerged from her room, she was wearing a long-sleeved purple shirt and the pair of jeans that Tifa had given her. It was the warmest, most modest thing she could think of to put on other than a kimono, and the shirt, which Tifa and Aeris had picked out for her all those years ago at the Golden Saucer, always made her feel better.

            She announced her presence in the room with a sneeze, and wandered over to the chair, sinking into it in utter exhaustion, amidst the concerned questions of her friends. Vincent remained blessedly silent. Staniv and Chekov spoke in heavily accented Midgarian for the benefit of Avalanche. They had decided this when Cloud had attempted to tell them 'thank you' and instead said 'your kindness is unwanted'. (by saying '_arigatai__' _instead of _'arigatou_').

            Yuffie rubbed her temples tiredly, and Vincent decided to speak up, silencing his comrades, and Staniv and Chekov as well.

            "I think Yuffie would prefer that you speak one at a time," he informed them. They all blinked at him. It was odd enough that he had, literally, _bought _Yuffie, but now he was _speaking_. Which brought another question to Cloud's mind...

            "Say, Vincent, just how much did you have to bid for Yuffie?" Cloud asked, curiously. The others turned to look at the dark gunman as well, morbidly curious. Vincent coughed lightly.

            "2 million, 620 thousand gil," he answered. Cloud's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, as the rest of the occupants of the room, barring Yuffie and Vincent, had similar reactions.

            "Holy HELL!!" Cloud swore, and Tifa, who was sitting next to him on the couch, hit him lightly on the arm, reprimanding him for swearing. Cid turned to Yuffie.

            "Damn, kid! I didn't know you were worth so much!" he exclaimed, a hint of mirth in his voice, and he smiled playfully at her. She sighed and shook her head, not quite up to Cid's take on being nice to her. The rest of the room turned to her as well, and there was a slight pause, as everyone waited on someone else to ask a question. Finally, Tifa decided to speak up.

            "Yuffie, are you okay?" she asked, for what must have been the billionth time. Yuffie nodded.

            "I'll...be okay," she said, in a tone that conveyed the fact that she DID NOT want to talk about what had happened to her. She looked over at Vincent, leaning against the wall near her door, and gave him a pleading look, silently asking him to remain silent as well. He nodded slowly at her.

            "Do you need anything, Princess?" Chekov asked. Yuffie sighed again.

            "I dunno...I...I'm kinda hungry?" she said, unsurely. Chekov nodded, and rose.

            "I will go fix you and your guests some tea and sandwiches," Staniv also rose, following behind Chekov as they made their way into Yuffie's kitchen. Yuffie gave a small smile as she watched two of her 'guardians' disappear into her kitchen.

            "Heyyy! I know what'll cheer you up!" Cloud exclaimed, and all eyes were now on the blonde swordsman, as he gave her a goofy grin. "Your presents! Today's your birthday, right?" Yuffie's eyes widened, and an almost alarmingly large grin spread across her face.

            "Presents? You guys got me presents?! You're great!" she exclaimed, as Cloud shuffled around beside the couch, where all the presents had been hastily moved to when they'd arrived at her house. Most of the odd group had to smile at her sudden change in demeanor. A box, not-so-neatly wrapped in shiny green wrapping paper suddenly came sailing across the room from Cloud's direction, and Yuffie nearly had to jump out of the chair to catch it.

            "Clo-oud! I'm not that TALL!" Yuffie mock-whined, before tearing into the present, caring not for the lime green wrapping paper as she viciously rid the present of it's covering.

            "Woooww! _Kunai!!_ And they even have Materia slots!! Thanks Cloud!!" she exclaimed, beaming the blonde a bright grin. "These must've taken you _forever_ to find!" she exclaimed, examining the sharp metal objects carefully. Cloud waved the last comment off.

            "Nah. Tifa drug me to the Junon bazaar last year, and I saw those. They were practically screaming 'Yuffie' at me, so I _had_ to buy them," he said.

            "Me next! Open mine next!" Tifa exclaimed, having retrieved her gift from Cloud. The martial artist bounced rather hyperly (for a twenty-one year old) over to the chair beside Yuffie's, previously occupied by Staniv. Yuffie eagerly took the large, neatly wrapped purple box from Tifa. Tifa's presents were always the _best_! This time, she took her time with the metallic purple wrapping paper, intending to save it for some odd thing.

            The ninja 'ooh'ed and 'aah'ed, half for show and half in reality, as she pulled the various garments from the box. She ended up with several more pairs of jeans, a bunch of cool-looking shirts, and finally a green turtleneck tank top and a pair of khaki shorts, almost identical to the kind the ninja wore during her travels with Avalanche.

            "ThankyouthankyouTHANK YOUUUU Tifa!" Yuffie exclaimed, glomping the older woman, who grinned.

            "Most people are _disappointed_ when they get clothes for their birthday," Tifa remarked, with a grin that was almost as big as the ninja girl's.

            And so, the gift-giving and recieving went on like that. Nanaki's gift was an elegant necklace, with a level 3 Restore materia for the centerpiece. Reeve, with his 'unique' sense of humor, gave her a disgruntled-looking Moogle plushie, who, when punched (and it MUST be PUNCHED) said a variety of strange things, in Cait Sith's voice. Yuffie, with her equally 'unique' sense of humor, found that repeatedly punching the poor thing in the stomach was a very fun experience, as eventually the poor Moogle cursed. Tifa shot Reeve a dirty look at that, and Cid shot him a proud look, making the CEO burst into maniacal laughter, followed by Yuffie. Barret's gift to Yuffie was his mastered Alexander Materia, which Yuffie accepted very happily despite the fact that she wasn't really a "Materia thief" any more. Cid gave Yuffie a bottle of 'motion-sickness pills' and a ton of GP from the Golden Saucer, which she was also grateful for. Finally, Vincent, in what Cloud described as 'too cliché', pulled a newly-mastered Ultima materia out of his armor and handed it to her. Chekov and Staniv had returned from the kitchen earlier, so the tea and sandwiches were quickly devoured at this point, Cid remarking that Wutai tea was "#in' weak compared to Shera's". Yuffie proceeded to hit him between the eyes with a GP token.

            Eventually, Yuffie hauled the spoils of her birthday to her room, giving the disgruntled Moogle one last punch for good measure. Just as she was leaving her room, a loud knock on her front door silenced the conversation going on in the living room. The relatively calm peace that had descended on the small house was broken.

            "GO **AWAY** GODO! I DON'T WANNA TALK TO YOU!" Yuffie shouted, giving the door and the man behind it a firey glare.

            "You WILL let me in, Kisaragi Yuffie!" Godo shouted from behind the door. Avalanche cringed. Yuffie's frowning mouth suddenly twitched upwards into an evil smirk. She stalked past the silent Avalanche to the door, and opened it.

            "Yuffie--" Godo started, but was cut off when a fist belonging to his daughter connected with his cheek.

            "TAKE THAT, YOU SELFISH BASTARD!" she exclaimed, slamming the door and stalking over to her chair, grumpily. The entire room gaped at her.

            "Y-yuffie, you really shouldn't--" Staniv started, but was silenced by a glare of doom from the small ninja. They could all literally _feel_ Godo's wrath from behind the door.

            "YUFFIE!" he roared.

            "I SAID I dun' wanna talk to ya, pops! Now go away!" she exclaimed.

            "Yuffie, OPEN THE DOOR, OR I'LL..."

            "You'll WHAT, pops? SELL ME OFF AS A SLAVE? Oh wait, you already DID that, didn't you?!" the venom in Yuffie's voice was obvious, as was the pain. There was a pregnant pause.

            "Yuffie...I'm sorry," came the unexpected reply from behind the door.

            "Sorry isn't good enough! You went too far!" Yuffie shouted. Godo sighed.

            "Yuffie, please open the door. I need to talk to the man who...bought you," he said. Emitting an aura of DOOM, Yuffie stalked over to the door and flung it open. Without even letting Godo get a word in edgewise, Yuffie turned around and stalked back to her chair, muttering curses that made Cid raise a blonde eyebrow and grin. She plopped into her chair and trained a death glare on Godo as he sighed and turned to Vincent, but not before giving her a disapproving look.

            "Mr. Valentine...or should I say 'Sha Geki'?" Godo asked, with a skeptical edge to the last part of his question. Vincent surprised them all by matching the amount of vehemence in Yuffie's voice when he answered.       

            "What?"

            Unbeknownst to Godo and Vincent, all of Avalanche, Yuffie included, gaped at the gunman. They'd only ever heard him speak with such vehemence in his voice when he had killed Hojo, and they'd_ never_ heard him be as disrespectful as he had just been, and to the _Lord of Wutai_ no less.

            Godo bit his lip, trying not to let the stoic man's utterly, and purposefully, disrespectful reply anger him.

            "I have recieved many questions from the townsfolk as to whether you are truly Wutaian," Godo replied.

            "I was born Sha Geki of Wutai. My father was Sha Seijutsu, and my mother was Sha Hajimari, originally Hane Hajimari," Vincent answered. Godo gaped, and Staniv and Chekov looked at eachother in alarm. The rest regarded this with a confused silence.

            "You..." Godo started, falling silent. "I thought you looked familiar. But there is no mistake. Younger, and with blue eyes, you would be identical to him...but..." Godo started.

            "I stopped aging physically at twenty-seven," Vincent answered Godo's implied question. At this point, Chekov spoke up.

            "Lord Godo, did you know this man?" Godo nodded.

            "I met him a few times, before the Sha family moved out of Wutai. He was a few years older than I was..."

            Yuffie suddenly burst out laughing, curling up in her chair. The entire room turned to look at her, confused and surprised.

            "Y-you mean that Vinnie is Godo's _elder_?!" she managed to choke out, before her speech was consumed by her fit of giggles. Godo coughed, glaring at his daughter momentarily before turning back to Vincent, attempting to ignore her now evil cackling.

            "A quick trip to the town records should prove your Wutaian blood...now, about the payment for--" he started. Immediately, the laughing stopped, and was replaced by outraged yelling.

            "DAMMIT, GODO! Don't tell me Vinnie REALLY has to pay that outrageous price! Gawd! Just let it GO!" she exclaimed. Godo fixed her with a stern glare, which she returned an angry glare of her own.

            "Yuffie, if he doesn't pay, won't that mean that...umm...the next highest bidder would..." Cloud started, faltering slightly in the last part of the sentence. Yuffie turned to him, and then screamed in frustration, burying her head in the side of her chair. Godo turned back to Vincent, who in turn looked to Cloud, who blanched.

            "Oh yeah...I _did_ kinda promise to pay out of Avalanche's bank account didn't I?" he asked, sighing and pulling out his PHS.

            "Hold on Cloud, I'd like to help pay too," Reeve spoke up. Cloud looked over at the CEO.

            "Hmm?"

            "Well, since I took over Shinra company, I also took over the bank account...so..." Reeve trailed off, grinning over at Yuffie, who returned his grin with a small, grateful smile.

            "So...half and half, then?" Cloud mused. Reeve nodded.

            "Sounds good. But...it's so late, you probably won't be able to get ahold of your bank," Reeve pointed out, and Cloud sheepishly put away his PHS.

            "Right...so, tomorrow then? I guess...Cid, if you're up for it, we can take the Highwind to Midgar and pick up the money..." Cloud said. Cid gave Cloud a thumbs up. Godo nodded, and swept his eyes over the room, before stopping on Yuffie.

            "Yuffie...this isn't over," he said, before turning and walking out the door, pulling it closed behind him. A large, white cushion hit the door with a loud 'thump!' a second later, and all eyes traveled back to a livid Yuffie, who was standing on the two arms of her chair, growling at the door, after having hurled the chair's cushion at the door. Muttering darkly, she walked over to retrieve her cushion.

            All of Yuffie's anger seemed to melt away, though, when she found her cushion being handed to her by a golden claw. She blinked, and smiled up at Vincent.

            "Thanks Vinnie!" she exclaimed, taking the pillow and nearly skipping back to her chair, leaving the occupants of the room to wonder about her mental health after the rapid change in mood.

            "So...since Vince actually went and 'bought' her, and me and Cloud are paying for her, does that mean the three of us get to split Yuffie?" Reeve asked, innocent smile belied by the pure, mischievous EVIL under his words. A second later, he was smacked in the face by a large, white cushion, as he laughed. Yuffie, however, was smiling this time, glad her friends could make light of her current situation.

TIME PASSES

            Yuffie's house was not very big. This became quite an issue with the discussion of where Avalanche was going to sleep, prompted by a long, loud yawn from one Cid Highwind.

            At first, the Wutai hotel was suggested. This idea was quickly dismissed for a number of reasons. Firstly, Yuffie didn't feel like going out in public right now, in order to get the hotel to let them stay for free, and she was stubbornly unwilling to have her friends paying to sleep in 'her' city. Secondly, no-one really wanted to leave Yuffie alone. Some of them wouldn't admit it, but they were all concerned for the ninja girl. Thirdly, they didn't really want to split up the group, and Vincent would _have_ to stay behind with Yuffie. When Yuffie quirked an eyebrow and asked 'why' at this, Tifa smirked.

            "Well, Vincent kinda _owns_ you now, and if he's not even gonna sleep in the same _house_ as you, what'll the townspeople think?" she asked, causing the ninja girl to blush and glare at her.

            "Oh, shut up. Vinnie _doesn't_ own me," she protested.

            "No, not _yet_ anyway. He still hasn't paid for you," Reeve added, causing her to glare DEATH at him and almost carry out the threat that her glare was conveying.

            The Highwind, which was parked just beyond the village, was suggested as well, but Cid seemed to be the only one eager to get back to the airship.

            At last, it was decided that they would all stay at Yuffie's house. This was the part of the conversation in which the size of Yuffie's house was brought up.

            Yuffie only had one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen, a living room, and a basement. It was immediately decided that Yuffie and Tifa would share Yuffie's room. Nanaki also announced right away that he would be sleeping right where he was: laying on the floor in front of one of the couches. Speaking of the couches, there were two rather large couches in the living room, where two more people could sleep. Yuffie immediately announced that Vincent got one of the couches, as a thank-you to him for, literally, saving her earlier. Of course, he protested that he didn't really _need_ to sleep, but she ignored him. The remaining four men decided to play a game of paper-rock-scissors to decide who got to sleep on the remaining couch, and Cloud won. This left Barret, Cid and Reeve to sleep in the basement.

            When they actually descended into the basement, they discovered that it was not as horrible as they had remembered it to be. The large, steel cage was gone from the ceiling (though how she got it OUT of the basement was a mystery). There was a large furnace on one side of the room, which Yuffie used to heat the entire house during the winter. After lighting the furnace and moving a few piles of junk out of the way, she retrieved a bunch of blankets and pillows, and the three men set to the task of getting comfortable.

            Once the sleeping arrangements were settled, Yuffie and Tifa started on the task of preparing dinner, as Barret had begun to complain that "the pansy-ass tea and that dinky lil' sandwich from earlier done wore off!". Staniv and Chekov had long since gone home, so Chekov was, sadly, not there to get annoyed by that little remark (and kick Barret's ass).

            "So, Yuffie," Tifa started, as she was tossing various vegetables and chunks of meat into a large wok, "What are you going to do now?"

            Yuffie answered, head buried in one of her cabinets, looking for some hidden spice contained within.

            "About what?"

            "About...what happened earlier," Tifa answered, carefully. Yuffie sighed, emerging triumphantly with the Wutaian spice that Tifa couldn't pronounce.

            "The first thing I'm gonna do...is murder that auctioneer. And the old geezers that kept bidding on me," she said, sprinkling a little of the spice in the concoction in front of Tifa, and making stabbing motions to emphasize the word 'murder'. Tifa shook her head, chuckling a little.

            "Sounds like something you would do," Yuffie returned to the cabinet, replacing the spice, and retrieved another one.

            "Guess so," Yuffie answered after a little while. Tifa stirred the concoction thoughtfully, careful to avoid the hot oil as it began to spit out of the wok.

            "What about...Vincent?" Tifa asked. Yuffie darted over to her, with a new spice, which Tifa _could _pronounce: pepper.

            "What about him?"

            "Well...ummm..." Tifa started, as Yuffie began to sprinkle pepper into the concoction, which Yuffie noted was actually starting to _look_ like it was supposed to: like stir fry.

            "...since he bought you, doesn't he have to marry you?" Tifa asked. Yuffie suddenly stopped moving, dropping the shaker full of pepper into the wok. All the color drained from her face.

            "Ack!" Tifa exclaimed, quickly grabbing the pepper container out of the wok, and turning to her friend, concerned. Yuffie suddenly animated herself, turning to look at Tifa with a half panicked, half angry look on her face.

            "You're kiddin, right?!" she demanded. Tifa backed up, raising her hands in what she hoped was a placating gesture.

            "Umm...I heard that the auction was for your hand in _marriage_, so I thought..." Tifa said, but she went unnoticed by Yuffie, who was now laughing, but not in humor.

            "Me? Married to Vinnie? He's like...three times my age! No frickin' way!" Yuffie said. Tifa laughed a little, nervously.

            "Yeah, but seeing as how he _bought_ you and everything..." Tifa said, mentally smacking herself as she realized she was only making things _worse_. Cloud chose that moment to enter the kitchen.

            "Hey, Tifa, Yuffie, how's the cooking coming? I'm star...umm, why's she rolling on the floor, laughing like that?" Cloud asked, stepping into the kitchen and next to Tifa. Tifa turned to look at him.

            "Correct me if I'm wrong, but since Vincent bought her, doesn't that mean that she and Vincent have to get married?" Tifa asked. Cloud, caught off guard, suddenly blanched.

            "Oh no! That's right! I never even _thought_ of that!" he exclaimed. Then another thought caught him. "Ack! I was only kidding when I said that earlier! I hope Vincent didn't take me seriously!!" Tifa sighed.

            "Of course he didn't...I don't think _he's_ thought of this yet, either. I think all he was concerned with was making sure Yuffie didn't fall into the hands of some old lecher...but..." Tifa trailed off. She and Cloud turned to the ninja, who was now pounding on the tiles of the kitchen floor, laughing as if someone had just informed her that Sephiroth had been reincarnated as a ballet dancer.

MORE TIME PASSES

            It was late. Really late. As Cid would, delicately, put it, 'dawn's ass-crack early'. It wasn't light yet, but it would be soon. Yuffie couldn't sleep. She hadn't slept at all until now, and it was only now that she decided that fidgeting around in her bed wasn't helping her at all. So, she got up and, using her mad ninja skills, snuck out of her room without disturbing Tifa. Silently she crept through the living room and into the kitchen, and outside the back door of her house. She jumped onto the wooden rail framing her porch, and sat down. Exhaling a breath, visible in the cold air, she sighed and stared at the dark form of Da Chao. Wutai was peaceful at night during the fall, a welcome change from the noise of the cicadas of the summer.

            Lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice Vincent until he was beside her and saying her name. She jumped, and barely stifled a scream. She did not, however, manage to keep her balance on the wooden railing, and fell backwards, to be caught by the dark man.

            "Are you all right?" he asked, setting her down on the porch. She shook her head and calmed her accelerated breathing.

            "Vinnie! You scared the crap outta me!" she berated, and jumped back onto the railing, once again sitting down. Vincent simply leaned against the railing. Even with her sitting down on the railing, which was a little shorter than she was, Vincent's head still came up to her shoulders. She snorted.

            "Tall freak," she said, teasingly, and ruffled his hair a little bit. He just sighed.

            "Why aren't you asleep?" he asked, in that creepy monotone of his. This time, she sighed.

            "I can't sleep," she replied. He looked up at her.

            "Why not?" he asked.

            "I'm afraid...I'll have nightmares," she replied, simply. He blinked.

            _Funny...that makes two of us._

            "You need to sleep," he said.

            "I know," she sighed. Then she turned to look at him. "What about you, Vinnie? Why aren't you asleep?"

            "I don't sleep," he said, shrugging his shoulders a little. She quirked an eyebrow.

            "Well...I guess I wouldn't sleep either, if I spent thirty years sleeping in a coffin," she replied. He winced a little, and she realized her mistake.

            "Ooh! Sorry, I didn't mean to..." she trailed off, shoulders slumping in defeat.

            "No...it's okay," Vincent replied, after a few minutes of silence. Yuffie let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. Yuffie looked away from him and at the looming Da Chao.

            "Y'know, you're bein' awfully talkative...for you, I mean," she said. He simply nodded. "Any special reason?" she wondered.

            "No, not really," he said. There was a comfortable silence as they both looked out into the wilderness surrounding Wutai. Suddenly, the sky behind the Da Chao statue began to lighten. Yuffie grinned.

            "Lookie, Vinnie! The sun's gonna rise!" she said. Again, he simply nodded. The two watched the sky gradually lighten as the new day approached. The canvas of sky slowly lightened to a brilliant shade of sky blue, as the sun's rays painted the clouds beautiful pastel shades of purple, pink and orange. Yuffie found a grin making it's way onto her face as she watched it. She almost never got to see the sunrise, but she never ceased to be amazed those precious few times when she found herself up early enough to do so.

            "Yuffie...later today, why don't we track down that auctioneer?" Vincent suggested. Yuffie turned to look at him, and grinned viciously, both surprised and strangely happy.

            "Really, Vinnie?" she asked, grinning quite evilly. He nodded. She jumped down off of the railing and glomped him. "Aww, you're the best, Vinnie!" she exclaimed. As she started to let go, she felt Vincent's arms come around her, and blushed, looking up.

            "Uh, Vinnie?" she asked.

            "It'll be okay, Yuffie," was all he said, but when she looked into his eyes, she saw a lot more behind the words. She suddenly felt tears brimming in her eyes, and looked down to hide them.     

            "Thanks," she said, soberly, and when he let go of her, she nonchalantly brought a hand up to rub the tears out of her eyes, trying to make it look like she was rubbing her eyes tiredly. Vincent looked down at her with a small, sad smile. Then he placed his human hand on her head, and ruffled her brown hair.

            "Short freak," he said, before walking past her. She turned around to gape at him, tears forgotten.

            "Did Vinnie just make a joke?" she asked him. He just kept walking.          

            "You should get some sleep, Yuffie," he simply said. She walked after him, mouth still agape.

           "I think you did, Vinnie! You made a joke! This is, like, the news of the century!" she exclaimed, sliding in the door to the kitchen after him, leaving the porch, bathed in the golden light of the new sunrise, behind.


End file.
